The Queen, as we know, has survived a great many hardships in her 55-year reign including war, the loss of the royal yacht and more anni horribiles than she might care to remember. But a recent encounter with the celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz was more than she could endure according to a new fly-on-the-wall documentary.

Leibovitz, famed for her celebrity portraits, was photographing the Queen for a series of official pictures to commemorate her trip to Washington in May when she inadvertently annoyed her by suggesting a more informal pose.

"Maybe try it without the crown? Less dressy, because the garter robe is so extraordinary?" suggested the photographer.

"Less dressy? What do you think this is?" exclaimed a clearly disgruntled monarch.

Flouncing out, with a footman skipping to keep up as he held her robes, she complained: "I'm not changing anything. I've done enough dressing like this, thank you very much."

The rare glimpse behind the public facade is just one of several candid moments in the BBC1 documentary A Year with the Queen, which will be screened in the autumn. Made by the team from independent producer RDF that filmed an earlier documentary on Windsor Castle, it follows the working life of the Queen and her staff as they go about their official engagements.

The crew accompanied the Queen on royal tours to the Baltic and the US, where George Bush tells the camera she has "a certain twinkle in her eye", and on a series of domestic engagements.